Samsung Posts Record Operating Profits for Q4 2011

Korea based consumer electronics giant Samsung has posted a record operating profit of 5.2 trillion won or $4.5 billion for the quarter ending December.

The company reported that the profit is significantly more than the 3.01 trillion won it had made in the fourth quarter a year ago. Samsung credited the record profit due to the massive success of its smartphone business and the sale of its hard disk drive business to Seagate.

The company beat the 4.6 trillion-won estimate that was put forward by analysts at Bloomberg News, Bloomberg reported. More than 300 million units of smartphones were sold thanks to its Galaxy range of smartphones.

Samsung saw its sales in the fourth quarter rise by 12 per cent to 47 trillion won. As Samsung's mobile division continues to growth, the company has already become the world's largest smartphone maker, blowing past Apple.

"Samsung is likely to continue record-breaking earnings this year as earnings from flat screens and memory chips will improve, making up for any potential slowdown in handset growth rates. I'd expect profits to grow by another 5tn won this year." Lee Seung-woo at Shinyoung Securities told the BBC.